Today is Sunday, August 07, 2011. On Wednesday I returned to my nephew’s house with brothers Guy (aka G1) and Kim and spent the whole day trying to get Guy Jr’s (aka G2) Triumph running. As I said before, the bike is a beautifully preserved 1970/71 Triumph Chopper that was G1’s bike back in the 70’s. Now G2 has it. I installed the new electronic ignition system and a new rectifier/regulator unit and now we have great spark with the plugs out but still no go. I went back to G2’s on Friday and spent another day cleaning the carbs, rechecking the recheck of the check on the timing, blessing and cursing the bike, until I finally made a unilateral decision and declared that “no matter how well it ran, and how easily it started 40 years ago with a battery-less system, I was going to try it with a battery wired in!” We borrowed the battery from G2’s lawn mower and made some jumper wires. I hooked it up, kicked ‘er over and she fired right up. A second unilateral decision took us to a bike shop where we bought a small battery and I installed it permanently. End of story. The bike runs fine. (The reason for all the problems? I’m guessing that the alternator magnet went a bit weak over the last 30+ years and could not generate enough juice at on-compression-kick-over speeds to fire the new, spiffy electronic ignition system I installed. Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking in to it.)
On Thursday, we went back to Old Town Alexandria to meet Guy Jewett and his wife Barbara, some friends we haven’t really seen in 30+ years. Guy and I worked together at Systems Technology Associates (STA) waaaaay back in the 1970’s. We also did a bunch of riding together, he on his Beemer and me on my Norton, of which we both still have. Now that’s kinda cool! We met at a nice little Italian restaurant and had a really nice lunch. Guy and Barbara had come to Phoenix one time but we hadn’t had time to spend together. So we spent the afternoon playing versions of “Do you remember old what’s his name?” and “Do you remember the time we …”. After lunch we walked around “The Torpedo Factory” which really was a torpedo factory back in W-W-2. It is HUGE and made of solid concrete. Guy theorized it was made so strongly in order to contain any accidental blast if a torpedo should blow up. Hmmm. Could be! Oh yeah, I FINALLY found an Alexandria “Been There Pin.” It says, “Torpedo Factory.” Cool!
Yesterday, Saturday, we packed up, said a tearful (really!) good-bye to Betty and Greg and headed south on I-95 the worlds biggest parking lot. We drove from Woodbridge to Fredericksburg (50 miles?) at an average speed of 17 mph. Once past F-Burg things opened up and we were “In the park before dark” as Greg says, at a nice KOA in Fayetteville, NC, wherein I am inscribing these great words.
That’s it. I will see if I have some photos to add.
Frank
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